


Accidents

by JustJasper



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Consent Issues, Destroy Ending, F/F, Pregnancy Themes, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-17
Updated: 2013-03-17
Packaged: 2017-12-05 14:54:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/724564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustJasper/pseuds/JustJasper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A confession.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Accidents

She’s still recovering, sleeps a lot of the time, has physical therapy and is in pain the rest of it, but she still knows there’s something Liara isn’t talking about. She’s glad to be out of the hospital and in Anderson’s - her - apartment, but sometimes there’s something tense in the silence that they don’t talk about.

Not until now, when Liara sits down deliberately and purposefully on the end of the couch that Shepard is resting on, and smooths down her casual tunic with her hands. Shepard tilts her head, and waits. She considers that if Liara is about to say she doesn’t want to do this, after everything, she’ll probably throw herself through one of those huge windows.

“There’s something I haven’t told you,” Liara says evenly. She looks determined, but Shepard doesn’t miss the worry stretching her features. “It’s something that you have every right to be angry at me for.”

“Really?” She’s surprised at that.

“You have a grasp on how asari reproduce, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Shepard says groggily. “You do the melding thing, you can do it just your your minds or you can do the whole body thing and get yourself pregnant, and sometimes there are still accidents and-” She stops mid-thought, because her tired brain has just caught up. “Liara?”

“The last night we spent together before the Crucible was deployed,” she pushes on, “on the Normandy, we melded.”

“Yeah.”

“I started the reproductive process, unintentionally. But maybe unconsciously, it was intentional. I was thinking of the future I wanted us to have, that I was certain was going to be denied us.”

“Oh.” There’s a sudden weight on her chest, an ache that is beyond the physical state of her.

“I didn’t realise at the time what had happened. I didn’t want to realise.”

“Right,” she nods, her head feels heavy and stuffed with cotton. “Are you…?”

“No,” Liara says. “It was a few weeks ago, while you were still unconscious, I- the pregnancy spontaneously aborted. There was a little pain and blood, so I realised what had happened.”

“You had a miscarriage.”

“I did,” she confirms, nodding curtly, still keeping up the calm exterior of someone reading intel reports.

“You’re gonna have to explain to me why I’m supposed to be angry,” Shepard says, reaching up rub at her aching temple.

“For the deception,” Liara clarifies. “To attempt reproduction during melding when the other party is unaware is considered rather immoral.”

“But it was an accident, wasn’t it?”

“I don’t know, Shepard. I can’t remember what frame of mind I was in, and with everything happening I tried not to think about it. I’m sorry.”

She’s identified it now, the ache; it’s sadness. Not for a lost potential child - everything is still too much of a mess for that, but for her lover.

“Did you go through that alone?”

And that’s when Liara cracks, tears rolling down her cheeks, caught between a sob and a laugh.

“Javik realised.”

“He did?”

The asari takes a breath, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand.

“He didn’t explain how. He said that primitives romanticise reproduction, and he asked if I was okay.”

“Were you?”

“I just wanted you to be okay,” Liara says, smiling softly. “And you’re getting there.”

“I am,” she says, even though she hurts so much and it feels like it won’t ever stop. “I’m not angry.”

Liara smiles, and gets up so she can go and put a kiss on Shepard’s forehead, mindful of how much pain the human is in. She reaches out and grips her arm though, keeping her in place and turning her face up for a kiss on the mouth.

“Thing’ll be okay, Liara. We’ve got a whole life ahead.”


End file.
